Today is Kangaroo Care awareness day. Kangaroo care (KC) is the practice of skin-to-skin contact with a premature baby and parent. In low and middle-income countries, where there are fewer medical resources, Kangaroo Care has been shown to reduce mortality among premature babies and shorten the length of hospital stay. Kangaroo Care is also very …
Continue reading “In praise of Kangaroo Care for premature babies”
As the inquest into Savita Halappanavar’s death continues we have heard about delays and errors, all of which most likely contributed to her terrible outcome. However, along the way those who have tried to pass off her death as medical negligence and nothing to do with Irish law or Catholic ethos have rested on the …
The Irish Catholic Bishops have seen fit to clarify the church’s view on gynecology given Savita Halappanavar’s death from sepsis at 17 weeks in her pregnancy and the concern that evacuating her uterus was delayed because the fetus still had a heart beat. The full statement is here, but this is the excerpt I find …
Mothers who deliver prematurely face serious health risks that are often neglected when we talk about prematurity. Today, in honor of Savita Halappanavar’s death from sepsis that was a direct result of her previable premature delivery, I would like to let the world in on the physical perils faced by mothers who deliver prematurely. Many …
Continue reading “The physical dangers for mothers who deliver prematurely”
This is what is known. Savita Halappanavar was 31 years old and happy to be pregnant with her first child. Then, at 17 weeks, tragedy struck and she was “found to be miscarrying.” Her husband reports that she was in “severe pain” for three days at the hospital and a termination was requested. He says …
Continue reading “Did Irish Catholic law or malpractice kill Savita Halappanavar?”
My boys were 8 months old when their oxygen benefits ran out. It’s a bit dystopian in that Total Recall kind of way (the first film where they turn the oxygen off, not the second one). I mean run out of oxygen benefits? What kind of demon dreams this shit up? It’s one thing to …
The Georgia legislature passed a new abortion bill (HB 954). Yet another law (it’s only a matter of time before it’s signed) governing the practice of medicine based on nothing resembling science. The issues: Fetal pain. The law will make Georgia the seventh state to enact a gestational age limit based on the false belief …
She knew she was supposed to be careful about getting pregnant, although truthfully she didn’t think it could happen because of her blood pressure and kidney problems. The nurses at the county clinic started her on the pill, but her blood pressure went all crazy. They asked her to come back on a Wednesday night …
Continue reading “A dispatch from Texas, the front line of the war against women”
I am not a fan of awareness months. The campaigns go on too long and frankly, the pinking of October (or greening, or whatever color has captivated Madison avenue) leaves me feeling like diseases are part of a company’s portfolio. I also don’t appreciate being harassed every time I swipe my credit card at Safeway …
Michelle Duggar is pregnant again. Number 20. Perhaps ratings were slumping for their “reality” show? I use the term reality loosely, because a family with 19 children is not reality for anyone. While TLC likes to call themselves the ‘Family, Home, Style, Cooking network,” (you know, crock pots and crafts), TLC is really code for …
Continue reading “The Duggar’s Russian roulette with prematurity”
